


An Arrangement

by apolloreyes



Series: G-Swap [3]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reverse, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Alternate Universe - Roleswap, Alternate Universe - Swap, Alternate universe - role swap, Humor, Joshua is mentioned, M/M, gman and gordon stimmy moments not clickbait, gman's just a normal 61 year old man he needs help, gordon and gman are swapped, gordon is the eldritch equivalent of early 40s, he's 16 years old in this, might possibly post more oneshots of this, this au has everything. gay old men polycule. bubby and gordon friendship. a snake named al dente
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:40:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27508516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apolloreyes/pseuds/apolloreyes
Summary: Giovanni "G-Man" Coolatta is just trying to find his son and son-in-law and escape Black Mesa with the rest of the Science Team with as few interruptions as possible. Unfortunately, a man in a suit has different plans.
Relationships: (kind of- they flirt with each other), Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Series: G-Swap [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010394
Comments: 7
Kudos: 86





	An Arrangement

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot from an AU me and dombinic/transheadcrab have been discussing on discord. He's also drawn some good art of it if u want a visualization of the characters  
> https://transheadcrab.tumblr.com/post/631186923390664704/trans-gordon-feetman-threatened-my-life-daily  
> https://transheadcrab.tumblr.com/post/632193189067079680/more-of-me-n-trans-gordon-feetman-s-hlvrai-gswap  
> https://transheadcrab.tumblr.com/post/632640438800711680/father-son-more-hlvrai-gswap-its-all-i-do-its

Suddenly, everything stopped.

G-Man looks around, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Bubby had stopped right in the middle of speaking, his mouth open and his finger pointing up as if he was about to win whatever argument he and Dr. Coomer were having.

Joshua is frozen too, although the position he’s frozen in is much more natural. Just slouching with his hands in his pockets. Like a teenager. A teenager who never should’ve had to deal with the fallout from the Resonance Cascade.

 _Because of you_ , his mind unhelpfully supplies.

He’s brought out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps. He looks around to find the source of the footsteps and-

Oh.

 _Oh god_.

Either this is a really unlikely coincidence, or he’s being approached by the Black Mesa Man in the Suit. An omen of bad luck that’ll cause any scientist with an ounce of sense to double check everything before going through with an experiment, lest it malfunction and get someone hurt.

_Why didn’t he appear before the Xen crystal test?_

G-Man is going to die here.

He’s going to die here and he can’t even call out for help because everyone’s fucking frozen in time somehow.

“Dr. Coolatta…” G-Man assumes the voice is coming from the Man in the Suit, but he’s still draped in shadows.

G-Man can’t decide whether to try in vain to back away or to just take his fate lying down.

The man steps out of the shadows and…

G-Man’s got at least a half a foot on him. Not even from the HEV suit. The man’s definitely not over six foot.

There’s also the suit itself.

From the few glances G-Man’s had of the Man in the Suit, his suit was always unnaturally well put together. Maybe a little pretentiously ruffled, but never like this. The man’s suit is torn, with half of his right sleeve being ripped off. His tie is also completely undone too. If it weren’t for the whole “freezing time” thing, G-Man would just assume this was a case of mistaken identity. Some upper level Black Mesa official with an unfortunate likeness to the omen of destruction and bad luck.

The man clears his throat. “Sorry! You know when you haven’t talked all day and your voice kinda comes out all rough and scratchy?” He laughs. G-Man is just staring, completely dumbfounded. This is the Man in the Suit? Who’s definitely caused half of the hospitalizations from experiments gone wrong? He. He looks like a dad. He looks like someone he’d meet at PTA meetings when Tommy was in elementary school.

He claps his hands. “Anyway. how're you doin? You doin’ alright? You’re doing GREAT by the way! This is all…” he pauses in thought. “Great. Everything- Well- I don’t wanna lie and say everything is going ‘All According To Plan’.” Air quotes. The man is using air quotes. “But so far we're doin' pretty good even if we're sorta-” he laughs nervously, “flying by the seat of our pants, you know what I mean?”

G-Man finds himself nodding nervously, even though he absolutely has no idea what the man means. 

“Anyway!” He claps his hands again. “Keep up the good work! And um- you know- it seems redundant to say- but- thank you, for keeping my son safe, right now.” His eyes were already glowing, but now they’re bright enough to light up the room. “And just. continue to do that. Alright? Alright."

“Uh-” He gulps nervously. “I’m- I’m more than, happy to, protect your son, sir, but I don’t, know who it is.”

Now the man laughs nervously- what does he even have to be nervous about? “You see, that’s the problem. I- I can’t really say it out loud because of these ‘forces beyond our control’.” The idea of forces beyond the control of someone who could freeze time was. Terrifying. To say the least. “But in good news you’re already doing great! I know you’re working hard to protect everyone in your group, so you shouldn’t even have to worry about it! Just wanted to offer you a friendly reminder. I didn’t think you’d ever stop protecting him, but, you know, just to be safe-”

The man is interrupted by the sound of slurping.

They both turn around to see Benrey just. Leaning against the soda machine. Completely unaffected by whatever the man in the suit did to pause time.

“Yooooooooo,” he greets, throwing up a peace sign. He looks towards the man. “You got PS+?”

So Benrey either doesn’t know about the urban legend, or he just has absolutely no fear whatsoever.

While G-Man would be surprised about him being immune to the whole ‘pausing time’ thing, this is fucking Benrey, for god’s sake. Disobeying the laws of reality is kind of his whole thing.

The Man in the Suit seems just as dumbfounded. Maybe even more so than G-Man. “I… I don’t know what that is.” He looks down, scratching his neck. If G-Man didn’t know any better, he’d think the man was _embarrassed_. But there’s absolutely no way the Black Mesa Man in the Suit is embarrassed over PS+ of all things, right?

Benrey takes a bite out of the soda can, tosses it into a trashcan, and walks over to the man. “You got a credit card? I have my PSP. I can show you how to get PS+.”

“I-” Was that-?

No fucking way.

The Black Mesa Man in the Suit is _blushing_. Benrey is somehow managing to fluster Black Mesa’s omen of bad luck. G-Man thought he was done being surprised by what Benrey was capable of, but the security guard seems to keep pulling out new shit to throw him off.

It’s very impressive. He’s a good kid. If G-Man was his father, he’d be proud of him. And even though he isn’t his father, he’s still proud of him.

The man laughs- no, that’s a fucking _giggle_. “I have a credit card, but I can’t really use it right now because of, y’know… Bureau shit.” G-Man has no idea what ‘Bureau shit’ means, but Benrey seems to know. “But… maybe you can show me after all of this is over?”

Is G-Man actually watching the Man in the Suit ask out his son’s ex? He’s half expecting this to be some fucked up dream or hallucination from blood loss.

“Um-” G-Man interrupts. “This is all, uh, nice, and I’m, happy for you, but, we’re kind of, trying to, escape.”

“Listen-” The man looks annoyed, but not threatening in the way he was when discussing his son. “Time’s frozen right now, I’m not delaying your escape, and I can only freeze time with you for… reasons I’m not entirely sure of, so just- I dunno, read a book or something.” He reaches into his briefcase and tosses out a bunch of books that definitely could not have fit in a briefcase that size.

“Now, telling me about PS+-”

G-Man sighs and picks up a copy of _The Picture of Dorian Gray_.

**Author's Note:**

> uhh feel free 2 send me an ask on my tumblr trans-gordon-feetman if ur curious abt the au!!


End file.
